
SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON QUARTERLY
companionship of angels, has become degraded to the service
of that which is earthly and bestial. This is the end to which
self-serving tends."—Id.,
pages 200, 201.
5.
"Doubtless there was a terrible battle of conflicting
emotions; hope, need, desire, conscience, remembrance of his
father and home, struggling against doubt whether he would
be received, shame for his past, conscious unworthiness, fear
of the taunts of his companions. Satan's chains are not
easily broken."—Peloubet.
6.
" 'I have sinned.' Once, when he was fretting against
the discipline of home and planning a way of escape, he called
his conduct independence; in the far country, when bright
eyes were shining on him and soft arms encircling him, he
called it pleasure; later, after he had run through his means,
and friends and lovers had forsaken him, he called it ill luck;
even when he commenced his reflections in the course of com-
ing to himself, he only called it folly; but now he has found
the right name, when he confesses, 'I have sinned.'
"—Stalker.
7.
"The father will permit no contemptuous eye to mock
at his son's misery and tatters. He takes from his own shoul-
ders the broad, rich mantle, and wraps it around the son's
wasted form, and the youth sobs out his repentance, saying,
`Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and
am no more worthy to be called thy son.' The father holds
him close to his side, and brings him home. No opportunity
is given him to ask a servant's place. He is a son, who shall
be honored with the best the house affords, and whom the
waiting men and women shall respect and
serve."—"Christ's
Object Lessons," pages 203, 204.
8.
"What assurance here, of God's willingness to receive
the repenting sinner! Have you, reader, chosen your own
way? Have you wandered far from God? Have you sought
to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them
turn to ashes upon your lips? And now, your substance
spent, your life plans thwarted, and your hopes dead, do you
sit alone and desolate? Now that voice which has long been
speaking to your heart, but to which you would not listen,
comes to you distinct and clear, 'Arise ye, and depart; for
this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy
you, even with a sore destruction.' Return to your Father's
house. He invites you, saying, 'Return unto Me; for I have
redeemed thee.'
"—Id., page 205.
9.
The great sin of the younger son was scorn of his fa-
ther's love. The elder brother was actuated by the same
spirit, though manifested in a different way. He was self-
righteous,, and was working for the benefits that would ac-
crue to him, lie misinterpreted his father's love, and was
hard-hearted toward his brother. The father does not give